MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health

Life course influences on visual impairment

Short-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hypermetropia) and astigmatism, all forms of refractive error, comprise the most common eye conditions worldwide. Research using data from the 1958 Birth Cohort has been used to investigate how biological, environmental, and lifestyle factors influence refractive error from birth to mid-adult life, and to understand what health and social outcomes result from refractive error at different ages. In the long-term this could contribute to strategies for preventing and treating refractive errors, which are disorders with high impact on individuals and society.

Our findings have offered clues for example to understanding the global increase in myopia over the past two decades. They have identified new avenues for research, which has until recently focused on ‘visual/ocular’ risk factor, such as intense reading during formal education. They also serve to identify important environmental risk factors that should be accounted for (as co-variates) in future genetic epidemiological investigations of refractive error.

Ongoing research using data from the Millennium Cohort Study is investigating the prevalence and distribution of eye conditions and visual impairment and associations with early social and biological factors, such as socio-economic status and ethnicity. This research has been used to inform the planning and provision of healthcare services for visual impairment. 

Study Team: Jugnoo Rahi (Principal investigator), Phillippa Cumberland,  Catherine Peckham

The role of early life infection and the later development of asthma and allergies

It has been suggested that infections in early life may alter immune development and the subsequent risk of asthma and allergies.

We are studying this in the Millennium Cohort Study by looking at certain infections in three-year-olds and relating them to later onset of asthma and allergies.

Principal investigator: Carol Dezateux

Hip joint development in infancy and adolescence

Abnormal hip joint development is an important underlying cause in adults needing ip joint replacements under the age of 60. However, little is known about the relationship between childhood growth, hip socket shape and depth in early childhood and the mature hip socket shape and depth in late adolescence, when the skeleton has reached its adult proportions.

We are collaborating with Professor Karen Rosendahl in a follow-up study, funded by Arthritis Research UK, of more than 2,000 Norwegian adolescents born in 1989 whose hip shape was measured by ultrasound when babies and by low-dose X-rays when young adults.

By linking this to childhood growth and medical records and family history of hip problems we are gaining unique insights into how factors operating during childhood contribute to adult hip health.

Results of this study were presented at a plenary session of the RCPCH 2012 Annual Conference in Glasgow:

• RCPCH 2012 Hip Development Abstract
• RCPCH 2012 Hip Development Presentation

Principal investigator: Carol Dezateux

Team: Francesco Sera

Changes in BMI and how it affects our risk of developing type 2 diabetes

By analysing data from the 1958 Birth Cohort we investigated how childhood obesity and changes to BMI over the life course affected the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The conclusion was that excessive BMI gain across the life span and earlier onset of overweight or obesity were associated with impaired glucose metabolism, in part because of the final BMI.

Principal investigator: Chris Power